No Place
by Kitty Katana
Summary: In a quiet moment, Inuyasha reflects on a rare childhood experience... and a friend who taught him to smile.


Disclaimer/Lawyer Binding Spell: I own no part of Inuyasha, nope, not a hair. I _do _own Inuyasha Clone #215.8 and Hitori Hisakata.

The hanyou stretched on the tree branch, watching the sunrise wash over camp. He sighed, feeling genuinely lazy as he rolled over to watch the group awakening beneath him. His silver hair caught the wind, which was drawn across his pale, discontent face. Miroku inched ever closer towards a groggy Sango and his first slap of the day. Kagome was rolling up her sleeping bag carefully, on the lookout for bugs and other creatures that often found their way in. Shippou was already snug in her bike basket, going back to sleep again. Inuyasha looked at all closely, as if examining something much deeper than was already there, and perhaps he was. Perhaps there was something over this place that only the hanyou could know and understand.

He felt alone suddenly, frightened, as he hadn't felt for a long time. Not since he was young. Well, since then he had built up arrogance and pride to counteract this terrible feeling. He'd found that his vices were the best defense against fear. He was unafraid because of his fear… the very fear of being afraid. The cold clammy sense that it gave him when it swept through him, that lack of oxygen, the stress of every sound meeting his silvery ears like a new din. He hated it all, and now it came rushing back as a flood.

"Inuyasha" Kagome's sweet voice seemed to fill the voids left. She was smiling warmly at him, waiting to go. A shock of confidence flared up in him at the look in her eyes. He rolled over, hitting the ground at full height. He nodded solemnly, without a word and they were soon off.

The rumor of a jewel shard to the east had attracted their attention. After all, the jewel must be coming near to completion. But Inuyasha's mind wasn't entirely on the shard as he walked. A strange force within him forced questions to fly through his mind, and then escape before he could grasp and answer one properly. Now one came to him as he watched the other four laughing about some joke he'd been too preoccupied to hear. They all seemed to balance each other…

What had he done to deserve such friends? Been an outcast, hated and feared by all, not trusting anyone… not even Kikyo.

He sighed. He hadn't done much to deserve them. Still, they were there with him, and he was content. Few had ever trusted him as Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Kirara had, with the exception of one, long ago... What was her name…?

…

The tiny silver-haired hanyou waddled along the path, finding his favorite tree. With sharp claws, he dug deep into the bark and crawled up it. If he looked off in just the right direction, he could see the village children play, throwing sticks or stones or balls, swimming in the lake or the rice paddies, laughing and screaming as they chased each other.

He envied them often, but since the incidents of several occasions, no longer desired to be with them.

"_Half-breed_"

"_Mutt_"

"_Monster_"

To say that their jeers meant nothing and didn't matter was to lie, to say that these taunts from peers and elders did not affect him was ridiculous, for within rational nature lies the desire of acceptance. He instead brushed them off and cried to his mother later. But what could she do? Either send him out into a cold world or keep him locked up, sheltered without outside influence forever. The latter was hardly an option.

This day, he watched as they played primitive games of tag and swam.

Amber eyes swept over them all, as if some alien species that fascinated him to no ends.

One in particular caught his attention often.

Hitori Hisakata was an unforgettable girl. She was tall, with long glittering brown hair and earth colored eyes. She was freckled and tanned from too long spent in the sun, but all this made her so different. He saw the others, pale, black-haired, dark-eyed. Hisa was different. He had only heard speculation of why. Some said she was the daughter of a foreigner and a Japanese mother. In fact, few cared of her history- she was such a good person that no one needed to know. To Inuyasha, she was the most beautiful of them all. On several occasions she had drawn the attention away from the teasing of the hanyou, and he was grateful.

Sitting there alone, trapped in a different world, he watched as she waved good bye to the others. She picked up two pails, finding a stick to use as a lever. Inuyasha followed as she made her way to the well outside of town. She swayed as she walked, humming quietly. Her song was slow and sweet, drifting through the treetops where Inuyasha followed.

He knew of his mother's instruction to gather eggs and herbs, but she always thought it would take longer than it did. Now he watched curiously, knowing only a foreboding feeling that something was coming. It could have been his mother though, angry that he was still out.

Looking off, he saw not his mother but a rather large mouse demon fleeing another house. It was the largest he had yet seen. The mouse demons in the area were especially vicious this time of year; the bachelors with no mate were deadly. The dog-sized black rodent screeched upon seeing Hisa, quite hungry for a meal.

"Look out!"

Inuyasha felt himself spring, as if he had no control over his own body. She would never move in time. His quick reflexes responded, propelling him from the branches onto the youkai. It thrashed wildly beneath him, tossing its black head and hissing its dissent. Finally, the young hanyou was thrown from the creature's form, in just enough time to watch it disappear into the abyss of the shadowy forest.

Heavily picking himself up, Inuyasha cast a sideways glance at Hisa. She wore no particular expression- fear, admiration and pain were twisted onto her freckled face. She had not moved from where she fell.

The boy mumbled an apology quietly, and then turned again to go.

"Wait!" Hisa's voice was suddenly loud and clear. "I know you don't I? …Inuyasha, right?"

He nodded, without turning to look at her. "I'm Hisa." Of course, he knew this already, but he'd never admit to watching her and her friends. "Well, you're very brave, Inuyasha… Oh! Are you alright?" She looked over the hanyou's shoulder to examine a shallow cut in his arm. He didn't respond. "Come on, my mother will fix you right up."

"B… but…" He drew away a step. Experience with adults taught him that many were even more vicious than their children. Hisa flashed another comforting smile as she stepped forward to grab his hand.

"My mother would love to meet you. She's so fascinated by youkai."

"But I'm not…"

"Oh, hush, I know. But what does it matter what you are? You saved my life, Inuyasha."

He blushed deep red and let himself be drug through the woods for a few minutes, listening to Hisa chirp another song.

The door was pushed aside as Hisa walked through it. Inuyasha crawled in shyly after. The girl's mother was mending something in the corner of the one room house. She sat with her legs folded neatly under her as she nimbly wove the needle through the colorful cloth. She looked up. "Hello, Hisa, dear. And who is this?" Hisa's mother smiled warmly.

"Mama, this is Inuyasha. He got hurt, Mama." She pulled Inuyasha's arm again, showing her mother the small cut.

"Ah, I see." Her mother smiled, calloused hands slowly wrapping around the frightened hanyou's wrist. She drew a cloth from nowhere and dipped it into a small, leaky pail. Gently, she dabbed his cut, pulling it away pink. Cutting away a piece of the cloth beside her, she wrapped it carefully around the wound. Inuyasha stuttered a thank you as his mother had taught him and looked her over carefully. Not unlike his own mother, her eyes were welcoming and gentle, her hands calloused and warm. Her hair was pulled loosely back, revealing her gray highlights and wrinkles that could only be described as laugh lines.

Remembering his own mother, he felt a rush of panic. He had to get home soon. "Arigatou, Hitori-san." With a bow, he hurried out the door. He heard the pounding of feet. Hisa was running to catch up. Apparently, she had never raced a half-youkai before.

"Inuyasha! Wait!" He halted in time for her to stop next to him with a basket. "I can help."

They finished in a fraction of the time, Inuyasha buying eggs and Hisa quickly picking herbs. Finally, he was on his way home. Hisa stopped in front of his tiny home. "I have to go back for dinner." She said heavily, reorganizing her light black hair. She smiled. "Will you be out tomorrow?" She looked up with a mock innocence. "I want to race."

He nodded. "Sure." And with a giggle, she was off.

"Inuyasha-chan?" He looked up at his mother, who was smiling down from the doorway.

…

"What are you thinking about?" Kagome broke through again, jerking him back to the present. He growled a 'nothing,' defensive for being interrupted. He sighed, watching Shippou's tail bob in front of him for the sheer purpose of keeping his mind off of these simpler times. His mind drifted back to the race she had spoken of, how his powerful legs, young though they were, easily delivered him to victory. He remembered with an astonishing accuracy every step and every backward glance that found Hisakata shrinking into the distance.

He smiled remembering it. It was a rather proud moment, to know that he had defeated their champion, thus overtaking every last one of the children who had dared to speak against him. He slipped back to an earlier date, when he had left the village after the death of his mother. It was his intention since the beginning to leave when his mother died, maybe to seek out the father he'd never known, but he had never imagined it to be so soon.

…

The tears gathered in a young Hisa's eyes. "Leaving the village? But… where will you go?"

He shrugged in response, accompanied by a small ", I don't know."

She looked half furious with him, half miserable at his leaving. Inuyasha nearly smiled at the thought that she didn't want him to leave until she could overtake him in a footrace. Well, might as well get out while he was ahead. Hisa's face surrendered to sadness, a quiet acknowledgement that she couldn't deter him from his cause. A singular thought raced through her head and impulse drove her to carry it out though she ordinarily wouldn't have. She hugged him, with tight brevity to hold onto his shape. Leaning back she emblazoned those amber eyes into her mind so that when she spoke, she spoke only the truth. "I'll never forget you, Inuyasha-kun."

He blushed a bit at the familiarity, the little boy peeking through the mock stiffness of a man. Once, she reached up and squeezed his soft silvery ears. He instinctively batted her away as he had countless times before. With a degree of ceremony, he lifted a bag to his back and took his first steps away from his childhood home without looking back at the girl he left behind him, tears escaping down her flawless face.

…

It was not so many years later that the chaos of Naraku and Kikyo began and his world flipped upside-down.

By now they had come upon a small village, it was nearly noon without him noticing a moment of its passing. Miroku had quickly scoped out the richest house in town and had begun 'working on' its occupants. Inuyasha took a look around while Sango suspiciously watched the monk and Kagome dug through her pack for food. She triumphantly rose with a small bag of pretzels, which she passed to Shippou.

Gold eyes roamed over the small town, familiar and yet different. It was empty on the street, except for one elderly woman who sat knitting on the front stoop. She glanced up at him momentarily before returning to her skillfully made cloth. Colors seemed to bleed into each other with even strokes of her withered hands. Something held him watching her- the way her fingers worked at the inexpensive cloth, weaving a pattern of perfection… just like their mothers'… He shook the thought. This was not the same town, not the same life he'd left. _She couldn't be. It was impossible_. He ruined whatever feeling he had previously and shuffled to where Kagome stood, offering another package.

He looked back to the stoop where only a piece of cloth remained, blown by the lonely wind. He slumped slightly, following Kagome's lead to the house. She stepped inside a step ahead. He paused in the doorway, and on that wind, he swore he heard something so faint, the final echo of what had been spoken so long ago- a familiar song light enough to be carried on the wind and yet powerful enough to bring down the walls of any heart. Perhaps it was Hisa's song…

…or perhaps it was only his imagination.


End file.
